ATP Oil & Gas Announces First Production From North Sea Well

Energy development and production firm ATP Oil & Gas has announced first production from its Wenlock W1 well in the Southern Gas basin of the UK North Sea.

The company’s wholly owned subsidiary ATP Oil & Gas (UK) Limited is the operator and owns a 100% working interest. The company said that the well was tested at a rate of 58 million cubic feet per day, the limit of the test equipment, in July 2007. The company claims that based on initial flows, the well has the capacity to exceed the tested level during normal operations.

ATP said that the Wenlock W1 well is the first phase of the company’s development plan in this hub area.

Paul Bulmahn, ATP’s chairman and president, said: “ATP delivered a step change in year-end exit rate from 67 million cubic feet equivalent (mcfe) per day at year-end 2005 to over 170mcfe per day at year-end 2006. For 2007, ATP once again set ambitious objectives to take production to a record 300mcfe per day by year-end. Wenlock production should continue to ramp up during the next few weeks to help us achieve this milestone.”